PRACTICAL FARMER, 



uig to tho degree of heat to which they are ex- 

 posed ; and every one mnst be sensible of the 

 danger to which sudden changes of temperature 

 must expose them. 



Great humidity, of which the least inconve- 

 nience is to produce fermentation of tho litter, is 

 fatal to the worms which are breathing the un- 

 healthy gases ; consequently, cultivators dread, 

 particularly in the fifth age, the warm aud damp 

 winds from the South. Within the habitations, 

 besides the external humidity, there is still devel- 

 oped a great quantity, which proceeds from the 

 leaves, and from the worms themselves. 



Dryness of the air, besides that it is essentially 

 injurious to the worms as to all animals, even when 

 it is the purest possible, suddenly dries and withers 

 the leaves 5 and the worms which feel instinctively 

 the want of a certa n quantity of water in their 

 aliment, refuse the leaf as soon as it is wilted ; 

 consequently the worms suffer, and the leaves are 

 lost. 



All cultivators know from their own experi- 

 ence, how Important it is to fulfil the conditions 

 of continually renewing the air, of constant «;qual- 

 ity of temperature, and of Jiygrometric invariable- 

 ness ; but from the want of means to comply with 

 them, they are obliged to guard against the conse- 

 quent iuconpeniences, and for this purpose they 

 are in the habit of burning in the room aromatic 

 plants, of boiling vinegar, into which cloves are 

 put, of sprinkling the worms with the chloride of 

 iime, &c. But the insufficiency and even the 

 danger of such process may easily be •conceived. 

 Dandolo, a skiful cultivator of Piedmont, was 

 not long in convincing himself that these means 

 were fatal to good management, and he very soon 

 completely reformed the method pursued. To 

 purify and render healthy the habitations of silk 

 worms he caused holes to be pierced in the floor, 

 the ^ceiling and the walls, for the purpose of 

 renewing the air; he repelled fumigations, of 

 the danger of which he was aware ; and in the 

 establishments constructed after his plans, and 

 called dandGlieres, his imitators, who, unfortunately 

 are few in number, because encouragement has 

 been wanting at Piedmont, obtain 100 to 110 

 pounds of cocoons instead of 50 or 60 to the ounce 

 of seed. Here, in France, the question being 

 brought before you, encouragement will not l»e 

 wanting. 



In the mean time the system of Dandolo is 

 still defective ; he established his fire-places within 

 the habitation itself, the immediate action of the 

 heat developed, and of the exhalations spread 

 from the combustibles could not but be pernicious 

 to the worms. Besides his methods are often 

 ineffectual, particularly in heavy and stormy 

 weather, when the circulation of the air is diffi- 

 cult, and when they are obliged to have recourse 



to fumigations of the chloride of lime, the appli- 

 cation of which it is not possible always to make 

 with the desired regularity. 



It is, therefore, necessary to employ more pow- 

 erful means, and which will be infallible in the 

 application of the principle of purification and 

 health developed by Dandolo ; it is then that 

 science truly takes possession of the question ; it 

 annihilates completely the action of external influ- 

 ences, transports without the habitation the source 

 of heat, and thereby realizes simultaneously, the 

 four conditions essential to the success of the 

 process pursued. 



In the system of M. d'Arcet the habitation of 

 the silk worms is in the first story, the fire-place 



or calorijere, ia on the lower floor, in a tight rOOm, 



called an air chamber. The air passing out of 

 this room, is conducte<l by tubes placed the whole 

 length of the floor of the habitation, and is let 

 into it by means of circular openings, of various 

 sizes. In the ceiling is arranged a system of tubes 

 and of openings, corresponding exactly with the 

 one below •, it is through these upper openings 

 that the air, powerfully attracted by a ventilator 

 and by draft stove (foiirneau (Tappel) fixed in the 

 chimney itself, which receives the funnel of the 

 calorifere, passes out, after having been introduced 

 into the habitation, and this draft produces another 

 in the air of the lower room, so that it establishes 

 a continual current. It is only necessary, there- 

 fore, to establish a room, not large, conveniently 

 situated, as to temperature and humidity. This 

 result is easily obtained, by producing in it, with 

 the aid of a calorifere, ice, wet cloths, and drying 

 matters, heat, cojd, humidity and dryness. 



Ill the month of April, 1835, M.C. d'Arcet sent 

 his plan of a salulirious habitation to M. Beauvais , 

 The time for commencing the oj>erations for th< 3 

 season was approaching ; to let this period pas?/^ 

 would be to delay, for an entire year, the applica- 

 tion of the system and the knowledge of its results. 

 M. Beauvais was impatient to put in practise the 

 work of science which his own experience en- 

 sured him the success of ; in a month, he arranged 

 a new habitation, from which, by judicious man- 

 agement, he has beea enabled to derive every 

 advantage; he remedied as much as possible tin 3 

 imperfections which must necessarily have resul'^- 

 ed from the haste with which the arrangements 

 were executed, and from the novelty itself of the 

 system applied to the management cf silk worms. 



31. Beauvais immediately found in the impor- 

 tant result whteh he obtained, the reward of his 

 cares and his assiduity, and he flatters himself to 

 have demonstrated more explicitly than it has 

 been previously done under our climate, thanks to 

 the system of purification of M. d'Arcet, for the 

 application of which one attentive and careflu 



